It came to my attention recently that Robert Jordan, the author of the epic Wheel of Time fantasy series, is dead. While people die all the time, and each death is tragic in its own way, this particular death struck me as particularly tragic.
I discovered the Wheel of Time series when I was about thirteen and an avid fantasy reader, and while I no longer read much fantasy, I have kept up with the series due to my own neuroses of finishing things that I have started (even if it was seventeen years ago), and because I actually enjoy the books! Devotees of the series will have noticed the books coming along at a slower and slower rate over the years, but probably cut Jordan a bit of slack for slowing down as the plot got more and more intricate. After eleven books and over seven thousand pages of thrilling adventure (not including the prequel), selling over 30 million copies worldwide, the world was ready and waiting for the twelfth and final instalment. It never came.
James Oliver Rigney Jnr., a.k.a. Robert Jordan, was diagnosed in 2006 with primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (cardiac amyloidosis), and despite a life expectancy of four years from that date, succumbed to the illness on the 16th of September 2007. Details of his funeral, and messages from family and fans have flooded his website.
This is a very real literary tragedy. The Wheel of Time series is as epic as it gets, and in my humble opinion as a librarian, is one of the most detailed and rich feats of imagination available in book form. It is surely a tragedy that Jordan will never get to pen the final words and conclude his mammoth undertaking.
The news is not all bad though. Rigney’s wife Harriet, a poet in her own right and also his editor, has selected fantasy author Brandon Sanderson to write the final book. Apparently Jordan has left many notes and completely written scenes for the final work, as well as revealing the planned ending in detail to members of his family. In a suitably sentimental nod to the Wheel of Time motif, Sanderson credits Jordan with his becoming a fantasy author. On his own blog, Sanderson reveals the details of his task, including his observations when re-reading the entire series as preparation. The final book, named ‘Memory of Light’, is due out next year.
Only time will tell if it retains an authentic Jordan voice, but one way or another, the wheel of time will keep turning:
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose…. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. But it was a beginning.
(from From the Two Rivers)
Christchurch City Libraries Blog 